Joy on Demand

ventually, he learned the answers from a wise man. The most important time is now, because now is the only time which you have some control over. The most important person is the person you’re interacting with. The most important thing to do is to do your best to serve the person you are interacting with

must aspire to have the determination to not give up, and also to cultivate the inner peace, inner joy, and compassion to be at ease as much as possible.

—meditation is entirely about letting go

identity is entirely mind-made. Identity has no substance whatsoever—it is nothing but a mere creation of mind.

In my life, some large percentage of my suffering arises from issues involving my identity (“How dare they treat me like this? Who do they take me for?” “Why am I not lovable?” “Why does he treat me like I am incompetent?

My thoughts are not me—they are merely thoughts. And my emotions are not me—they are merely emotions

Ease is good, joy is good. I

The Art of Suffering is love

Love yourself enough to allow yourself the space to suffer, without shame or judgment.

present-moment sensations in the body. In the words of Thich Nhat Hanh, “Come home to yourself, come home to the present moment.”
2. Cradle with tenderness. Figuratively cradle the self in pain like a mother cradles her crying baby. The mother doesn’t know why the baby is crying, but she cradles the baby anyway, and just by doing that, the baby feels better. Similarly, treat the self in pain like a baby and cradle it tenderly with love.
3. Cultivate compassion from this suffering. Compassion arises from understanding suffering. Suffering is like mud, compassion is like lotus, and you need the mud to grow the lotus. So understand the suffering, and allow that understanding to turn into compassion. When compassion suffuses th